Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy will move to within 50 games of the magical 500 when he coaches his 450th senior game this Sunday night.

It is remarkable in this modern era that every one of those games will have been as senior coach of the Essendon Football Club.

In the first year of a new three-year contract, Sheedy should reach the 500-game mark midway through the 2002 season.

Sheedy has coached 449 games to this point of his career and has recorded 284 wins, 160 losses and five draws.

That equates to winning 64% of the games he has coached in - a similar strike rate to the best coaches the game has produced.

Jock McHale (66%), Allan Jeans(62%), Tom Hafey (65%) and Ron Barassi (54%) all coached 500-plus games.

Essendon appointed its first senior coach in 1908 when Dave Smith was given the job.

Since that time Essendon has had 25 coaches but two - Dick Reynolds (1939-60) and Kevin Sheedy (1981-) - dominate the record books.

Reynolds coached 415 matches and Sheedy has 449 and is still going strongly. John Coleman (133) and Jack Worrall (135) are the only other coaches at essendon to reach triple figures.

When you take into account his playing days, last weekend's match against Richmond was Sheedy's 700th at the elite level.